What SD ammo for 9mm?

You are going to get hundreds of different answers as to why people choose the ammo they do.

Do some research, and decide on what you want out of your ammunition. Some people prefer expansion. Others want penetration.

Like I said, do research, because you just opened the biggest can of worms there is in the firearms world. And beat the horse's skeleton.

This...

Along with what Ku4hx said I would venture to say that people murdered by felons with firearms were probably killed with FMJ rounds as I doubt seriously these guys would buy expensive HP ammo.
Whatever it came with out of someones house when it was stolen or sold on the black market is probably what these cretins used.

I am of a different mindset. Buy a LOT of the inexpensive stuff and practice a lot. Take the money you save on the premium stuff and get the feed ramp polished. Trigger adjusted and smoothed, maybe a couple of springs replaced. A better holster.
9mm will not reliably expand much. If you can fire first/quicker, and still hit accurately, with quick accurate follow up shots with NO malfunctions, punching .356 holes in the target will work just fine.
You cannot purchase a majic bullet to replace the above. And you should practice with what you carry, or the recoil and follow up shots will be different. I cannot afford to do that.

hovercat said:

9mm will not reliably expand much.

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I'm a mite curious to know exactly what you mean by that.

It's unlikely any 9mm bullet will ever have expansion as great as say, a .45 caliber one, but that's well understood. If you look at the various studies, or even do your own tests, you'll find that current premium 9mm bullets commonly expand to .6" inches or so. Some more; some less. But given the 9mm JHP typical as-built diameter of .355", that's pretty good.

As to practice ammunition, it doesn't need to be what you carry, it just needs to have the same "feel" and ballistics as what you carry ... or be reasonably close. I load my own, and I load my own cast bullets to be ballistic twins to my carry stuff. You can in fact find commercially produced cheap ammunition that does the same. You, of course, have to do the research, but it can be done. I do mine with a PACT2 chronograph.

And yes, practice, practice and more practice is very important.

I'd say these expand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMiI8VcPQ3c

For me in my Glock 19 its Federal 115gr +P+ JHP. The round has excellent real world results in LEO shootings. I prefer a time tested performer over a an unknown that "may" be nearly as good.

I think you're referring to the Illinois State Police load - Federal 9BPLE.

(They also later used Winchester 115 +P+)

I'm not sure what database was put together on the shootings involving that round unles we're talking about M&S.

Anecdotally - the ISP liked the round, it was used during hot summers and cold winters so it performed against all sorts of different soft barriers.

147 gr. Winchester PDX1 Defender and or 124 gr. Black Hills JHP (+P)

I think that Critical Defense is a gimmick round. Probably nothing wrong with it, but I want to do some testing to see if it makes any difference at all for opening when clogged with cloth.

I prefer 147 gr subsonic, but my wife didn't care for the recoil when I got her a 9mm, so I got her some 115 gr. I doubt there's a lot of real-world difference, except she can shoot them faster and more accurately.

The Hornady Critical Duty +P has pretty consistent penetration through different barriers. Part of it is because the petals fold back to the core and it's not going to get much bigger than .52" regardless of velocity.

You take a Speer Gold Dot - the faster you push it, the more it mushrooms out, and thus, the less it penetrates.

The Critical Duty isn't like that, it's only going to get so big.

For consistent penetration the round seems to work.

I just would rather have a round that penetrates to around 14" and expands to around .65" than a bullet that penetrates between 15" - 16" and only expands to .52"

Hornady TAP or the Winchester bonded pdx1 .

C0untZer0 said:

The Hornady Critical Duty +P has pretty consistent penetration through different barriers. Part of it is because the petals fold back to the core and it's not going to get much bigger than .52" regardless of velocity.

You take a Speer Gold Dot - the faster you push it, the more it mushrooms out, and thus, the less it penetrates.

The Critical Duty isn't like that, it's only going to get so big.

For consistent penetration the round seems to work.

I just would rather have a round that penetrates to around 14" and expands to around .65" than a bullet that penetrates between 15" - 16" and only expands to .52"

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Hornady has FBI test protocol results of their Critical Duty ammo here if you are interested.

Just hit the "See Details" link under the pictures of each of the cartridges at the bottom of the page to see 'em.

There are plenty of quality choices and many more opinions on personal protection ammo. The best choice is what runs reliably in your gun. The last thing you want is ammo that you can't trust regardless of the ballistics data.

You can see quite a bit of ballistics testing of JHP handgun ammunition online and use that as a starting place to select some for your testing. I found that tnoutdoors9 on YouTube does some very good testing using 4 layers of denim over ballistics gel. That's how I came to try out Hornady Critical Defense. That's what I use in both my and my wife's carry pistols, but I didn't make the change until I had put about 100 rounds through each pistol and had no failures. One of the challenges of JHP is finding one that feeds reliably through your personal weapon.

Great ballistics data (fps, expansion, penetration...) and personal opinions aren't worth a damn if the ammo doesn't run reliably in your gun.

C0untZer0 said:

What's the reasoning behind these ammo choices?

Is it based on penetration & expansion in gel tests? It is based on energy? muzzle velocity? What?

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Ole' Italian proverb 'if it does not kick it doesn't work'.

I do not care for +P or +P+ 9Luger ammo. Just picked up couple boxes of Federal HST 124gr loads @$30 per 50 which does not seem all that bad for what appears to be quality loads.

Federal has nice primers

Right now I have some Federal 115gr +P+ old school stuff I picked up at Walmart on the chart. It reminds me of the old Corbon ammo I used to carry.

In your pistol; reliability first, accuracy second. What is claimed
To be the most reliable or accurate may not be true for you.
In my case: 1st Corbon 125 grn +p 2nd Speer Gold Dot
124 grn +p

Semper Fi

I use the granddaddy of them all: Hydra-Shok.

They are consistent, they feed and have fed great in every 9mm I have ever run them through, and they have the advantage of having been around a long, long time and thus have a good and credible track record. I can't afford to practice with them all the time, but I have 100 on hand in addition to the two full mags of them I have loaded at any given time.

If I didn't shoot that, not sure what I would go with. I suppose I would have to do some research, but I like Cor-Bon products as a general rule...

147gr JHP in an HST or Gold Dot flavor for winter

124gr JHP in an HST, Gold Dot in the summer.

I am of a different mindset. Buy a LOT of the inexpensive stuff and practice a lot.

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I doubt that many people practice extensivly with their expensive, premium JHP ammo. I know I don't. Most of my practice is with WWB FMJ or similar economy choices, with only limited range use of pricy JHP (Gold Dot or HST in my case) to confirm reliable functioning and POI. I would guess that my ratio of practice to carry ammo use is at least 10:1

9mm will not reliably expand much.

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Not sure where you get that idea. Every gel test I've seen on modern, premium 9mm JHP expands consistenly and reliably.

I doubt that many people practice extensively with their expensive, premium JHP ammo. I know I don't

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I agree. My local indoor range will not let people shoot expanding loads as it tears up their backstop. They will usually let someone run a box if they need to test it for functioning in their gun, but otherwise it's FMJ-only.